


Before Song

by Anonymous



Category: The Wood Wife - Terri Windling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 03:41:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17035937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/





	Before Song

As the moon rose clear and full, the Owl Boy came swooping in on silent wings and a sudden back beat of his wings that raised the dust. The Floodmage lay in her stream bed, the picture of indolence until the Nightmage's stare dragged her sullenly onto the bank. There she sat, kicking her legs in the water and watching the maelstrom she made. 

Far off in the darkness, the shuffle and rattle of cactus spines marked the unhurried approach of the Rootmage. The Woodmage, listening from the ironwoods across the canyon, would not stir herself to come closer.

Crow laughed, his coyote-headed form raised to the sky. 

The Owl Boy spat in the sand. "What will we do? The One-Who-Sleeps comes close to waking."

"Let him wake," said Crow carelessly. 

"And have him reroute all my streams, all my floodplains? No," the Drowned Girl hissed. 

"It is too soon," the Windmage agreed. 

"We'll need the human," said the Nightmage, fearsome under his heavy rack of antlers. 

"Which human? Your spiritmage, the one who came by stealth? The poet woman, the little shaman, the mad artist? Perhaps all of them!" Crow circled their little group, amused again. "Who can stop the earth from moving, when the Earthmage commands it? None of them!"

"But to sooth a restless sleeper, that is not so hard," said Tomás, making his unhurried way to their meeting point. "If you will help him to hear me, I will lull the One-Who-Sleeps again."


End file.
